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Fenerbahce 0-3 Arsenal: five talking points

by Simon Burnton 4 years ago

Arsenal's defeat by Villa has been overplayed; they still look lightweight up-front; but at least the club's coffers are likely to get another Champions League top-up

1 Arsenal's misery has been overplayed because of circumstance

Had Arsenal finished anywhere but fourth in the Premier League last season they would not have had to play this game and would have been able to recover from Saturday's defeat by Aston Villa in relative privacy. Instead Arsène Wenger has been contractually obliged to discuss his side's failings in daily press conferences, the fresh quotes sustaining several days of negative headlines. Saturday's was a painful defeat, certainly, but it has been over-analysed as a result of an unfortunate accident of scheduling.

Few teams could understand Arsenal's pain better than Fenerbahce, who having finished second in last season's Super Lig and reached the Europa League semi-finals, suffered an even more humiliating opening-day reverse than their opponents, when they somehow parlayed a 2-0 lead with 15 minutes to play into a 3-2 defeat at freshly promoted – and via the play-offs at that – Konyaspor. This game offered both sides an opportunity to change the mood for the better, and it was one the visitors grabbed greedily. For all the noise their fans created, from the start their home side seemed by some distance second best, and there were moments – one pizzicato exchange of passes around Fenerbahce's penalty area in the 18th minute, for example – which recalled the best years of Wenger's Arsenal. This team are not as good as many Arsenal fans hoped it would be at this stage, but their weakness has been overplayed.

2 Arsenal's problems still quite striking

Wenger's side dominated the first half, enjoying 54% of possession and not allowing the Turkish club a single shot on goal, but for all their pressure, goalscoring chances of their own were extremely limited, with Olivier Giroud passing up probably the best of them when blasting wide in the closing minutes. When the ball was worked wide the Frenchman was frequently alone in the penalty area – Tomas Rosicky, nominally offering central support, is not the kind of player who naturally attacks the six-yard box.

Arsenal's forward line and their undermanned defence, so stretched after Koscielny's injury that Bacary Sagna was again asked to improvise at centre‑half – which he did decently enough, though Arsenal were too frequently unsettled once Emmanuel Emenike came on – are most in need of assistance. On the plus side, it seems Arsenal's coffers will get yet another top-up when qualification for the group stage is confirmed.

3 Walcott keeps flourishing as the pressure rises

For all the first-half frustrations, Arsenal always had one threatening attacking option in the shape of Walcott on the right flank. From the start the Englishman's running was too intelligent, and too quick, for Michal Kadlec, Fenerbahce's left-back, and this individual duel was eventually to lead to two of Arsenal's three goals. Given the troubles elsewhere in Arsenal's attack, Walcott is increasingly expected to provide a cutting edge and he is proving utterly undaunted by the pressure. Kadlec, at 28 a veteran of 48 appearances for the Czech Republic, can rarely have been made to look quite as hapless as he was here.

4 Can Ramsey and Wilshere click in central midfield?

Among Arsenal's many faults on Saturday was a central midfield that frequently failed to do the defensive work that was required of them. Neither Aaron Ramsey nor Jack Wilshere is entirely comfortable patrolling the space in front of the defence, which explains why they so often chose to patrol other space entirely.

Here they had another go, with slightly better results. Ramsey in particular was effervescent but these opponents were much less demanding than Villa, and the midfield pair were allowed to spend long periods where they are most comfortable, in their opponents' half. It seemed concerning when, in the 11th minute, they were both caught ball-watching, an easy pass was played to Dirk Kuyt in the space behind them, and a swift move ended with Pierre Webo narrowly failing to connect with a left-wing cross, but it was not a feat that Fenerbahce could readily repeat.

5 Players will always play innocent

After half an hour Webo kicked Laurent Koscielny full in the face and as Arsenal's physios treated injuries that stained their cloths with blood and insisted on the defender's departure, the referee called him over. If ever there was a time to bow your head and accept your punishment, this was it. But instead the Cameroon striker greeted the inevitable yellow card with a look of outraged, wot-me-guv innocence that proved that he has a talent both for kicks and slapstick.

Koscielny has had a particularly hideous start to the season, both matches so far having ended early with him seeing red. The only question is which he found more distressing – the referee's card on Saturday, or his own fissured forehead on Wednesday night.